BILL ANALYSIS
AB 302
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 302 (Beall)
As Amended June 22, 2010
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | |(June 3, 2009 ) |SENATE: |29-0 |(August 18, |
| | | | | |2010) |
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(vote not relevant)
Original Committee Reference: HUM S.
SUMMARY : Requires the electronic submission of specified
information to the Department of Justice (DOJ) with respect to
persons admitted to a mental health facility on the basis of
being a threat to themselves or others, or as a result of being
certified for intensive treatment.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill,
and instead:
1)Enact reporting provisions with respect to persons that have
been admitted to a mental health facility on the basis of
being a threat to themselves or others or as a result of being
certified for intensive treatment.
2)
Provide that, commencing July 1, 2012, facilities that submit
reports on the identity of such persons and the legal grounds
upon which the person was admitted to the facility shall
submit such reports exclusively by electronic means, in a
manner prescribed by the DOJ.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Prohibits a person who has been adjudicated by a court of any
state to be a danger to others as a result of a mental
disorder or mental illness, or who has been adjudicated to be
a mentally disordered sex offender, from purchasing,
possessing or controlling any firearm or any other deadly
weapon, unless there has been issued to that person a
certificate by the court of adjudication upon release from
treatment, or at a later date, stating that the person may
possess a firearm or any other deadly weapon, as specified.
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2)Requires the court to immediately notify the DOJ of the court
order finding the individual to be a person adjudicated to be
a danger to others or adjudicated to be able to possess a
firearm upon release from treatment, as specified.
3)Provides that no person who has been found not guilty by
reason of insanity of specified crimes shall purchase or
receive, or shall have in his or her possession, custody, or
control any firearm or deadly weapon unless the court of
commitment has found the person to have recovered sanity, as
specified.
4)States that the court shall immediately notify the DOJ of the
court order finding the person to be a person prohibited from
possessing firearms, as specified, or of the court order
finding the person to have recovered sanity, as specified.
5)Additionally prohibits ownership, custody, and control of
firearms by persons who are gravely disabled as a result of
mental disorder or impairment by chronic alcoholism and who
have been placed under a conservatorship, as specified.
6)States that any report submitted by a facility to the DOJ
shall be confidential, except for the purposes of the court
proceedings as specified, and for determining the eligibility
of the person to own, possess, control, receive, or purchase a
firearm.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill required the Department of
Developmental Services, using existing data, to determine how
purchase-of-service funds are spent based on consumer ethnicity
and primary language.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "California law prohibits
certain persons who have been admitted to a mental health
facility from purchasing or possessing firearms for a period of
five years, and requires mental health facilities to immediately
report information about such individuals to the DOJ so that it
can conduct background checks on prospective purchasers of
firearms.
"Current procedures allow mental health facilities to submit
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this information to the DOJ by mail, requiring manual entry of
data into the background check database. In order to address
the volume of records that must be transferred to the DOJ,
facilities often delay sending the required
information-sometimes waiting weeks or even months, to
consolidate their shipments.
"Delayed reporting can have tragic consequences. The author
reports that he was contacted by one constituent whose son
purchased a firearm shortly after his release from a mental
health facility and used it to commit suicide. The DOJ had not
yet received the information from the facility when it conducted
a background check. This tragedy likely would have been avoided
if this bill, requiring immediate, electronic submission of
information on the day of admission, had been in effect.
"AB 302 would address the problem of delayed reporting to the
DOJ by requiring transmission of this information electronically
in a manner prescribed by the DOJ. The requirement wouldn't
take effect until July 1, 2012.
"Forms already exist and are in use for on-line reporting. The
only 'technology' required is an internet connection."
Analysis prepared by : Nicole Hanson / PUB. S. / (916)
319-3744
FN: 0005202